Isaiah 53:6 (1996 Conf. in CA.)

Introduction: The Encouragement of God's Word and the Centrality of Isaiah 53:6

0:01 Now, before we turn to the reading and preaching of the Word of God, I do want to seize this final opportunity that I have to face you, many of my brothers and sisters, who are old acquaintances that we have had the joy of renewing fellowship with during this visit. Many of you new acquaintances. It is always a tremendous encouragement to meet one and another who come up to me and say, Pastor Martin, we've not met, but...

0:34 And then they begin to say how God has used this or that particular tape or series of messages either to bring them to Christ or to establish them in Christ as those messages came on what we back home affectionately call our little mechanical preachers. And it has been a great encouragement to know the truth read in our hearing that the Word of God, when it goes forth, does indeed accomplish that for which God himself sends it. And it has been a great encouragement to my wife and to me to see what God is doing here in this part of the country in the raising up of churches committed to the old paths of Biblical, faith and life and worship and ministry. And though we go back exhausted, this has been like a triple marathon of preaching over the past ten days, we go back renewed and refreshed in the inner man in terms of what our eyes have seen and our ears have heard. And be assured that as I report to our own people and to that circle of churches with which we have our most intimate, intimate ties of fellowship back on the East Coast, that there will be much joy amongst God's people

2:00 and there will be intensified prayer that God will continue and expand the work of his grace in your midst in the days to come. And finally, I do want to express sincere thanks for the many tokens of love and affection shown to my wife and to me, the homes opened, the tables served, the spread, the transportation given, all of these acts of kindness. We simply remind those of you who have been involved in them of the words of the Lord Jesus, that not a cup of cold water given in his name shall fail of its reward. And now will you open your Bibles with me to the same prophecy, but two chapters earlier, the same prophecy from which, Pastor Blackburn read that of the prophet Isaiah and chapter 53, this very well-known chapter in which we have an account of the suffering of the servant of Jehovah given in such details that one would think Isaiah the prophet had been an eyewitness of the very events recorded in the latter chapters of each of the gospel writers. In fact, this is a true story.

3:28 We know of a woman whose background was Jewish. She had never been within the walls of a church where the gospel had been preached. And she somehow found her way into such a church. And when the servant of God stood and began to read the scriptures from Isaiah 53, she thought for sure the man must be reading from the New Testament, from the New Testament gospel records.

3:57 But to her surprise, he was reading from this famous chapter of the suffering servant of Jehovah and eventually was brought to faith in Israel's Messiah. And we're going to consider a text in this passage that is of peculiar benefit to us for this simple reason, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, that while the whole of the Bible is God's written revelation, concerning the things that you and I must know, believe and experience in order to be fit to live, ready to die and prepared to go to judgment, God has given to us within the Bible some succinct summary statements which capture the very heart of the message of the entire Word of God. which capture the very heart of the message of the entire Word of God. And one such portion of the Word of God is found here in Isaiah 53 and verse 6, where in a very real sense, the entire message of the Bible is condensed within the compass of one verse. And that text is Isaiah 53 and verse 6, and that text is Isaiah 53 and verse 6,

The Bad News: Our Desperate Condition in Sin (Isaiah 53:6a)

5:24 where the prophet declares, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Within the compass of this brief text, God has set before us two very clear basic units of thought, Within the compass of this brief text, God has set before us two very clear basic units of thought, Within the compass of this brief text, God has set before us two very clear basic units of thought, and I want with the help of God to expound them as simply, as clearly, as passionately as God will enable me to do so. And those two units of thought are these. We have first of all the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. We have first of all the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one of us to his own way.

6:28 That is a statement of the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. And then it is followed by what I am calling the good news of God's gracious provision for sin. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

6:52 And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

6:52 So we have the bad news followed by the good news. And you see, even the order in which these things are set before us follows the order of God's gracious dealings with the hearts of men. For until you and I have heard, received, and acutely felt the pain of the bad news of our desperate condition in sin, we will never appreciate and will never receive with faith and with joy the good news of God's gracious provision for sin. Seek to stuff your ears to the bad news and you forfeit forever any delightful reception of the good news. Take seriously and lay to heart the magnitude of the bad news of your desperate condition in sin, and then indeed the good news of God's gracious provision for sin will be the best of news you have ever heard.

A Vivid Picture: Humanity as Straying Sheep

8:14 And with all of your heart and soul, you will embrace it. Following then the very track, cut for us by the text itself, think with me as we contemplate what the prophet sets before us as the bad news of our desperate condition in sin. And he does so in two ways. First of all, he gives us the vivid picture of our desperate condition in sin, and that in turn is followed by, by what I am calling a blunt pronouncement of our desperate condition in sin. So we have a vivid picture and a blunt pronouncement. Look first of all at the vivid picture of our desperate condition in sin. All we like sheep have gone astray.

9:21 And here the, the prophet incorporates imagery that would have been familiar to all of his hearers. Perhaps there are not a few of you here who have never seen a real bonafide flock of sheep, let alone seeing flock of sheep day after day as a part of your ordinary experience. But to those to whom this word came in its original setting, this would have indeed conveyed, very vivid imagery to their minds. For what the prophet is doing is likening the condition of his hearers and of all humanity to that of a vast flock of sheep that has strayed from the presence, protection, and guidance of its rightful shepherd. He views all of humanity as one thing, a vast flock of sheep that has strayed away from the presence, the protection, and the guidance of its rightful shepherd. And as such, all of these sheep are exposed to danger and even destruction. Predatory animals can consume them.

10:47 Thieves can take them to themselves. And when the prophet declared, all we, like a vast flock of sheep, have gone astray, he was setting out a vivid picture of our desperate condition in sin. And if you were to ask the question, well, in this straying, from what have we strayed? Well, the scriptures answer that question very clearly.

11:18 We have strayed, first of all, from God Himself as the object of our supreme desire and our supreme delight. The scriptures make it clear that man was made in the image of God with the capacity to know and to hold delightful communion with God. And when the scriptures tell us that man and only man was made in the image of God, at the heart, at the heart of what it means to be an image-bearer of God, was this capacity that man had, in contrast to all of the other creatures which God had made, personally to know and to hold communion with the living God. The most beautiful animal made by the creative Word of God could not consciously reflect upon its beauty and say, thank you, God, for making me the beautiful creature that you have made me. Or were it a creature that was to crawl upon the earth, or one whose wings would split the air, regardless of its assigned place in the purpose of God.

12:39 It had no capacity, consciously, knowingly, to hold communion with God its Creator. But man was made that he would have, this communion with his God, and that he would find in his God, his supreme desire and his supreme delight. And you remember when our Lord Jesus was asked, what is the first and the greatest commandment? He answered, quoting from the Old Testament, the first and great commandment is this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And when the prophet says, all we like sheep have gone astray, he is setting forth this reality that the whole mass of humanity has gone astray from its God as the supreme object of its desire and its delight. Some of the saddest words to be found anywhere in the Bible are found in Paul's description of universal sinfulness in Romans chapter 3, verses 10 to 18.

14:03 And he begins with these words, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now here are the sad words. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God.

14:24 None that seeks after God. There are angels and cherubim and seraphim made with a capacity consciously to know and hold fellowship with and appreciate the wonder and the glory and the majesty and the beauty of God, and yet there is none that seeks after God. All we. Like sheep.

14:59 Have gone astray. We have strayed from God Himself as the object of our supreme desire and delight and further we have strayed from the law of God as the governing rule of our lives. For when sheep stray from their rightful Shepherd they not only leave the place of communion with the Shepherd. 夫 place of interaction with the shepherd they leave the place of the government of the shepherd they get beyond his staff and his crook and the instrument by which he guides them and the prophet is likening all of humanity to a vast flock of sheep that in its straying has not only strayed from God himself as the object of supreme desire and delight but have strayed from the law of God as the governing rule of life and what the prophet sets out in this vivid imagery the apostle Paul states in explicit language in Romans 8 and verse 7 where he writes the carnal mind is enlivened the carnal mind is enlivened the carnal mind is enlivened

16:20 Enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And what that means, kids, when it says the carnal mind, it means the disposition with which you were born. The disposition with which all of us was born. The internal disposition of heart to God is enmity itself.

16:48 It doesn't say the carnal mind is at enmity with God. The scripture says the carnal mind is enmity itself. In other words, every one of us by nature is one big clenched fist in the face of God. The carnal mind is enmity against God.

17:10 It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot flattering statement. I'm sure the man in the crystal palace not too far from here would not look approvingly upon my telling you.

17:38 Even you dear children, you were born with a clenched fist in God's face.

17:47 Carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. Neither indeed can it be.

17:55 Neither indeed can it be. There is no human force or power that can change that. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. All we, like sheep, have gone astray.

18:15 But that straying is not just an innocent ambling away here and there from the norms of God. It is a deliberate, resolute, determined abandonment of God's law as the rule of our lives. And all we need to do is take those ten words spoken not by Moses, but by the mouth of God upon Sinai, written by the finger of God in tables of stone, placed in the ark of God in the immediate presence of God, and in the presence of the God before whom all things are naked and open, and in the presence of God before whom all things are naked and open, We bring our hearts and our thoughts and our motives and our desires and our words and our deeds before those ten words of God. Then we see indeed the prophet is telling the truth. We have gone astray like a vast flock of sheep, not only from God himself as the object of our supreme desire and delight, but from the law of God as the government, the governing rule of our lives. He said, You shall have no other gods before me, and we by nature make a God of everything and anything we can put our affections upon.

19:41 He says we are to worship him only as he commands, and man continually invents his own instruments of worship. God says you shall honor my name and we take it lightly. God says you shall remember me, remember my day to keep it holy, and we say who is the Lord to say that he shall have a day holy unto himself? And he says honor my instituted framework of government.

20:13 Children, obey your parents. Honor your father and your mother. And we say who is he, who is she, who are they to tell me what to do? God says regard and respect the sanctity of human life.

20:35 Regard and respect the sanctity of the marriage union of sexual relations, the sanctity of possessions and truth, and the sanctity of the heart. And when we bring ourselves to those ten words of God that touch the full spectrum of our thought and motives and desires and deeds, we say surely the prophet was not indulging in rhetorical overkill when he said all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way. And this is why the scripture says by the law comes the knowledge of sin, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Yes, this is bad news. This is bad news of our desperate condition in sin set before us first of all in this vivid picture of a vast flock of sheep going astray. But then notice in the second place how the bad news of our desperate condition is not merely set before us in a vivid picture.

A Blunt Pronouncement: Every One to His Own Way

21:56 It is set before us in a blunt pronunciation. A blunt pronouncement of our desperate condition. Look at it in your own Bibles with your own eyes. It says all we, like sheep, have gone astray.

22:16 We have turned to him which could not be more simple. We have turned to a three-syllable word in terms of how you give the emphasis to the vowels. We have turned. We have turned.

22:40 We have turned. We have turned. We have turned. We have turned.

22:40 We have turned every one to his own way. Here's a blunt statement and pronouncement of our desperate condition. Notice it doesn't say we have turned every one of us to this or that particular sin. It doesn't say we have turned every one of us to drunkenness.

23:04 We have turned every one of us to swearing. We have turned every one of us to cheating. We have turned every one of us to thievery. We have turned.

23:12 We have turned every one of us to blasphemy. That simply would not be true. There would be some who could rise up and say no. I have been honest to a dime and to a penny in all of my dealings with my fellow men.

23:25 I have not knowingly stolen a cent from any human being on the face of the earth. But it does say we have turned every one of us to his own way. In other words, every one of us has chosen to go into the God business and run the business of God. On the show, we have turned every one of us to his own way.

23:49 What's a way? A way is a pattern of life. A way is a course of action. We say of someone, well, I don't like the way he does things.

24:00 What we mean is we don't like the course or pattern in which the person acts. And the text says we have turned every one of us to his own way. We have said. I am going to mark out the path for my life and live it by the standards that I choose.

24:22 I don't care whether or not God has said thou shalt or thou shalt not. I don't care whether God has marked out a path. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to do my thing.

24:41 And that is true of every single one of us by nature.

24:51 The prophet. It said we have turned every one of us to his own way. What we have described by the prophet is underscored in the language of the great apostle Paul in the New Testament, chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. And I ask you to look for a moment at this parallel passage.

25:20 Here the apostle declares in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and following, For the love of Christ constrains us because with us judge that, one died for all, therefore all died, and that he died for all, that they that live, now follow closely what it says, that they that live should no longer long to themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. He says Christ died so that all for whom he died, when they received, the virtue of the death that he died, will no longer live to themselves, clearly teaching that until the power of death of Christ has entered a man's life, he's living unto himself.

26:23 You see that in the case, dying through his death should no longer live unto self, but up to that moment, each and every one lives unto himself.

26:39 He makes himself his own God. He's gone into the God business. Oh yes, God says you shall not steal, but if it pleases me to take the possession of another, I'll take it. God says you shall not bear false witness, but if it spares my hide to lie about my brother or sister and say they did it when I really did it, then I'm prepared to lie.

27:04 What are you doing? You're going your own way. You're saying God's way marked out by God's law is not going to regulate my life. God says, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

27:16 And you say, I don't care what God says. I like her. She likes me. We make out in bed.

27:21 Well, the sheets, who is God to stick his nose under our sheets? I'll tell you who he is. He's the God who made you and roast you in hell. If you go on living in your fornicating, adulterating life and don't repent, this is serious business.

27:47 All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned. Everyone. To his own way.

God's View of Sin and a Personal Question

27:56 So that the rule for us is I will live in terms of what I want, when I want it, why I want it, and I'll pursue it. Now the question is this. Our text tells us something of our desperate condition in sin by a vivid picture. All we like sheep by a blunt assertion.

28:23 We have turned. To his own way. The question is, how does God look upon all this? Will you go right back to the garden of Eden?

28:32 And when our first father went astray like a sheep, when he turned to his own way, how did God react? Did God just say, oh, well, you know, boys will be boys and kids will be kids and Adam will be Adam. Oh, yes, I told him you shall not eat of that tree in the day that you eat, you die. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, but you know, man is man in what can be expected.

29:00 And did God indulgently pass over Adam going astray like a sheep from God as the supreme object of his desire and delight and turning to his own way? No, God came and banished him from Eden. And when the generations soon became so cumulatively wicked that God says it's greed, it's greed. I believe me.

29:29 I even made man. God says I'll blot out the entire human race, saving one family, Noah and his family, and the bloated bodies upon the heaving billows of the flood are a witness to how God looks upon man. The creature saying, I'll cast off God as my supreme object of desire and delight, and I'll do my own thing. And Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgments of God throughout human history are a witness that God does not take sin lightly. The soul that sins, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. And I ask you before we leave this first part of our text that sets before us the bad news of our desperate condition in sin, I want to ask you a very simple, personal, pointed question.

30:37 Will you regard yourself as sitting right here next to me, 18 inches between our noses, and my eyes looking into yours, and I ask you this question. Have you, not your mother, father, brother, sister, the guy behind you, the woman to the left of you, your husband, no, no, no, have you, you, my friend, sitting there, looking into my eyes, my eyes into yours, in the presence of God, have you ever felt the reality of your desperate condition in sin? Simple question, but I want to ask it. Have you? You, you, you, and you, and you, and you, have you ever felt the reality of your desperate condition in sin? I didn't say, have you felt it to the point where you wept seven buckets of tears over the course of 13 days? I didn't say, have you felt it to the point where you couldn't sleep at night for six successive weeks?

31:52 No, I would not set standards beyond the word of God. But Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and no one ever embraced Christ as Savior, who did not keenly feel his desperate condition as a sinner apart from Christ. So I ask you the simple question, have you ever felt, you notice I didn't say, have you ever admitted you're a sinner? I've only met one person.

32:29 In all of my life, I wouldn't admit he was a sinner. Only one. People tell you, none of us is perfect. I'm a sinner?

32:37 Sure. You're a sinner, I'm a sinner, we're all sinners. Sort of like the measles, when it hits the household, everybody gets them. But nobody is too upset, no one feels moral guilt and culpability, and they treat sin like a universal case of the measles.

32:52 No, it is your individual case of rebellion against Almighty God. You.

33:01 With your feet. With your spiritual feet, you went astray from God as your supreme object of desire and delight. You, with your feet, went astray from his law as the governing principle of your life. You, with your heart and your carnal mind, have purposed to do your own thing, to live unto yourself.

33:27 And it's only when sin becomes to you the burning old, consuming, disruptive reality that you will ever take seriously the gospel of the grace of God. There's some of you sitting here tonight, you know what it is to have the issues of guys and gals and face and form and grades and promotions and salaries and benefits. You know what it is to have those issues, burning issues that you think about, you plan about, you scheme about, but you've never spent 30 seconds of serious intent thought about what it is to be a sinner before God your maker. My friend, every one of us will take our desperate condition seriously in this life while the door of mercy is open or in the day of judgment when the door of mercy is shut.

34:36 Take your desperate condition in sin seriously, you shall. You shall. You shall.

The Good News: God's Gracious Provision for Sin (Isaiah 53:6b)

34:49 And if that's all I had to preach, I don't know that I could go on preaching. But blessed be God, the whole of the Bible as well as this text takes us on from the bad news of our desperate condition in sin to the good news of God's gracious provision

35:12 for sin. And notice the emphasis of the text. As long as the prophet is talking about us, it's nothing but bad news. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way. But when he's going to give us good news, the emphasis now shifts from what we've done to what God has done. Has done. Notice, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I want you to note two basic things about the good news of God's gracious provision for sin. First of all, note with me the author of this provision for sin. Look at your Bibles. Who is the author of this provision? And the Lord. The Hebrew word Yahweh.

36:13 The great I am that I am. The one who declares I will be that I will be. The great God of total self-sufficiency. The God of gracious self-revelation, of covenantal faithfulness and grace. And the Lord has done something. The author of this provision for sin is the Lord himself.

36:42 God. God has come forth as the offended party to do something on behalf of the offenders. And that's the great emphasis of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. When Adam and Eve sinned, what did they do? They ran to hide from God. But the scripture says the Lord God came in the cool of the evening and God sought out man. Adam, where are you? And he came as the great inquisitor not only to confront him with his sin, but to say, look, you've aligned yourself with the devil. But I'm going to break up the alignment. I will put enmity, warfare between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. God takes the initiative to break up man's alignment with the devil.

37:48 God takes the initiative. And from that first indication of it on to the wonderful statement of John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Ephesians 2 and verse 4, after describing our condition in sin in verses 1 to 3, the apostle transitions into describing God's mercy. God's mercy.

38:18 words, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. If you've never heard the late Dr. Lloyd-Jones' sermon on those two words, but God, beg, bide, and I was almost going to say steal, but don't steal. But what a marvelous exposition of this truth, but God, but God. Again in Titus 3, Paul describes in the first several verses the tragic state all of us are in by nature, and then he says, but God, who is rich in mercy, mark it down as a very, very accurate litmus test of all religious teaching when it comes to the issue of how man gets right with God. Does the teaching start with an arrow that begins on earth with man reaching up to heaven, or does it start with an arrow coming out of heaven reaching down to man? All saving

39:32 religion begins and ends in God. False religion begins and ends in man. And our text as it sets forth the good news. The good news of God's gracious provision for sin, first of all, underscores the author of this provision and the Lord. It is God himself who has come forth to do something for man in his sin. But then notice, secondly, and this is the heart of our study tonight, the focus of this provision for sin. What is the focus of it? Look at the heart of our study tonight. The focus of this provision for sin is the focus of it. Look at the heart of our study tonight. The focus of this provision for sin is the language of the text. And the Lord has laid or made to light or made to strike upon him the iniquity of us all. The author is God, but the activity has to do with something

The Focus of Provision: Substitutionary Sin-Bearing of the Servant

40:36 that God does with one who is set before us in this pronoun, him. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And who is the him? We go back to verse five, and we can't identify him. We simply read, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes. But who is the him? Who is the he? We go back to verse four, and we get no more light. He has borne our griefs, yet we did esteem him, stricken, smitten of God. Verse three, he was despised. Verse two, he grew up before him, but pray tell Isaiah, who is he? And you work back through chapter fifty-three, back to chapter fifty-two and verse thirteen, and there you have the proper noun. There is the one concerning whom all the pronouns belong. Behold, the

41:53 servant. It is the servant of Jehovah who is the focus of this entire section. And when we come to verse six and read, the Lord has laid on him, it is Jehovah doing something with respect to the servant of Jehovah that constitutes the good news of God's provision for us. And what is he doing to his servant? The language says Jehovah has laid on him, or made to light or rest, or some Hebraists suggest a better translation, made to strike upon him. The iniquity of us all. The focus of this provision for sin simply stated is this. The substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah. God's provision for us in our sin

43:09 is bound up in the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah. And what is this laying upon him, or making to light upon him? Our iniquities. Well, it is nothing less than Almighty God as the sovereign righteous judge of the universe legally crediting his son with the sins of all of those whom he represented by willing covenantal engagement to be their substitute and surety and representative. And what the prophet is saying is this, that in that capacity the servant of Jehovah has the sins of his people laid upon him and when they are laid upon him, charged

44:12 to his account,

44:15 Jehovah comes forth dressed in robes of the judge of the universe. He sets his day in court and he beholds his servant charged with the guilt of the sins of His people, and He deals with Him in strict justice, unmixed with mercy.

44:43 And in opening up this gracious, glorious truth, my friend, let me say this, until you see in the cross of Christ what happened between the Father and the Son, the Son and the Father, you never understand the cross of Christ. If all you see when you read the Gospel records is the wretched, rotten, sneaking, shriveling betrayal of Judas, coming to Jesus in the place where he knew he would find Him, for he oft times went there to pray, if all you see is his sickening smothering of Jesus with His kisses, with his kisses of betrayal, until you want to vomit in the face of his wretched hypocrisy, if that's all you see, you've never understood God's provision for sin. If all you see is the wickedness of the chief priests and the religious leaders who stir up a mob and seek to incite them to make up stories and bear false witness, and none of them can even agree, if all you see is the Lord Jesus, the object, the object of their lying taunts, you've never understood the cross of Christ. You never understood God's provision for sin.

46:09 If all you've ever seen is those who made that crown of thorns and put it on His head and pressed it down and the blood burst forth as those sharp thorns pierced His holy brow, if all you've seen is the cruelty of those who blindfolded Him and then struck Him and cuffed Him and said, Ha! If you're what you claim to be, who prophesied, prophesied, who has struck you, then we'll believe on you. If all you see is the ribald, heartless cruelty of the soldiers who mock Him, who taunt Him, who beat Him, who scourge Him, you've never understood God's provision for sin. If all you see is the activity of those who stretch out His arms and set the nails and pound them through His flesh, hits Him upon the cross and hang Him up between earth and heaven, and then the taunting and the mocking that continues, and you say, How sad! How grievous! How horrible! How unfair!

47:18 That He who healed the sick and raised the dead gave back infants to their mothers from the dead, who touched the eyes of the blind. How wretched and tragic! It's a horrible scene! The worst act of cruelty ever committed on God's earth!

47:38 My friend, if that's all you see when you read the account of the death of Christ, you don't understand the good news of God's provision for sin. Hear me carefully. For the good news of God's provision for sin is to be found not in what man did to the servant of Jehovah, but what Jehovah did to the servant of Jehovah. Amen.

Jehovah Bruising Jehovah Jesus: The Inner Trinitarian Activity

48:02 Look at our text. And Jehovah has done something. It is the activity of Jehovah that is in focus. Look at it again in verse 10.

48:16 Yet it pleased Jehovah, the Lord, to bruise him. He has put him to grief. But I thought it was the chief priest and the religious leaders that put him to grief. I thought it was the soldiers.

48:32 And the mocking, jeering crowd. But the prophet says, Jehovah has put him to grief. It pleased Jehovah to bruise him. What's he talking about?

48:46 This is what he's talking about. He is saying that in the mystery of the cross of Christ, when his sufferings so clearly described in this passage were brought to their apex in all of the events surrounding, and culminating in the crucifixion and the blackened heavens and the cry of abandonment, the true meaning of the cross is to be found not looking out at the horizontal plane, but looking upward in the vertical dimension. Because there in the unseen but real world of spiritual reality, there was inner Trinitarian activity. Jehovah. Jehovah is bruising Jehovah Jesus, his servant. There in the court of heaven, God is taking all of the legal guilt, the cumulative guilt of all of the people of God of all ages.

49:51 And he is crediting his son with that guilt. And he is bringing down upon his soul the full undiluted fear, the fury of that guilt. In the language of our Lord Jesus, it was that which constituted the cup before which he trembled, and from which he shrank in Gethsemane. You remember, kids, that account of Jesus going into Gethsemane.

50:25 It says he began to be sore amazed. And what was it that caused this tremendous paroxysm of soul, this disruption, this volcanic agony that caused him to fall to the ground? And the Greek in Mark's Gospel is emphatic. He was like a man staggering and falling, and piercing and staggering and falling again.

50:53 And in the focus of all of that was this thing called the cup. Oh, my Father, if this cup cannot pass away, except I drink it. Not my will but Thine be done. If it be possible, take this cup from me.

51:13 What was this cup? What was it? It was nothing less than the cup full to the brim with the pure, holy, undiluted wrath of God against the sins of those who had gone astray, like sheep, who had turned to their own way. And every deed and thought and word and disposition and attitude and desire that was the cumulative outflow of going astray like sheep, turning to their own way, all of that, of all of His people, is credited to His Son.

51:58 And the full wrath of God for those sins is in that cup. And when our Lord sees that, He says, Oh, my Father, if possible, let it pass. Jesus would have been guilty of impiety had He said, Cup, no big deal. I'm the Son of God.

52:22 I'm being upheld by my Father. He had said to me in the covenant engagements of eternity, My Son, whom I uphold, no big deal. It would have been impiety not to shrink. Before the cup.

52:38 And He did shrink. But then He said, Not my will, but Thine be done. Not Thy will be done upon me, but Thy will be done by me. If the only way for the cup of the cumulative wrath of God against all the sins of all of His people of all ages, if the only way the cup can be drained, is for Him to take it to His lips and to drink, and to drink, and to drink, and to drink, until the last bitter drop is gone.

53:12 He said, Father, Thy will be done. I will. And when He went to the cross, according to our very chapter, and men did their worst, it says, As a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. When the chief priests accuse Him, He doesn't say to them, All leaders of Israel, Why do you lie against Me?

53:41 Why do you stir up the rabble mob to concoct these false charges and hurl them in My face? As a lamb before her shearers He was dumb. And even Pilate, in all of his wickedness, the Scripture says, He knew that for envy they had delivered Him. He knew all their charges were trumped up charges.

54:03 But what caused Him to marvel? It says, Pilate marveled that He was silent, because Pilate knew all their accusations were a bunch of bunkum. And yet Jesus is utterly silent. Then it says, All His disciples forsook Him and fled.

54:23 And there's no word that comes from the Son of God. Oh, My disciples, My disciples, you whom I've nurtured and loved in these years of intimate fellowship, why have you abandoned Me in My hour of need? No word. When even His disciples forsake Him.

54:43 No word when the Roman soldiers, no doubt amidst their mockery and amidst their foul soldier's language, impale Him upon a cross. But the Scripture tells us that there was darkness over the whole land from the sixth hour till the ninth hour. There was at high noon a total eclipse, of the heavens. It became blacker, as one old poet said, blacker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp.

55:22 God, as it were, takes the curtain and He pulls it across the sun. And He turns the noonday into the blackest darkness of night. While the soul of the Son of God is plunged into the felt pangs of outer darkness. And the Scripture says toward the end of the three hours.

55:48 Then He did cry. And what was the direction of His cry? Not horizontal. He didn't say, My great leaders in Israel, why?

56:07 My disciples, why? But My God, why have you abandoned and the heavens were silent? No answer was forthcoming. Do you know the answer?

56:32 Do you know the answer? It's here in our text. The Lord has made to light upon Him the iniquity of us all. And when Jesus is legally, really charged with the guilt of our sin and dealt with by God in pure justice, He receives our hell.

57:01 Though as one of the old Puritans said, not in a hellish manner. That is with despair and no hope of the reshining of the face of God. But while He was bearing our sins in His body upon the tree, He knew in those dark hours in that pure holy spotless soul the felt pangs, of abandonment by His Father. When the scripture says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

Christ as a Guilty Felon: Imputed Sin and God's Justice

57:41 This is what it means when it says, He who knew no sin was made sin for us. This is what it means. I shall never forget the first time I read in Rabbi Duncan's masterful work, I'm sorry, Hugh Martin's masterful work, The Shadow of Calvary, an exposition of Gethsemane and he made this point that from the time Jesus was apprehended in the garden, you remember how they came and they bound Him? They dragged Him off to Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod and back to Pilate.

58:20 From the time He was bound there outside the wall of the garden of Gethsemane voluntarily giving Himself up at the first approach, Jesus of Nazareth, I am He. And it says the soldiers fell backward upon the ground. Apparently there was either in His voice or temporarily in His very countenance an outburst of His own inherent glory as God and they were smitten and fell to the ground. Our Lord then is saying in essence, Look, I'm in control, not you.

58:58 And when they got up off their faces, came back to their senses, He gave Himself up to be bound, carried off from one puppet court to another. Hugh Martin makes this perceptive observation in the theater of the activities on earth that men could see with their eyes. Had you kids been awake that night and stood by mom and dad and gone from the high priest place over to Pilate and then up to Herod and back to Pilate from the very moment He is apprehended in Gethsemane, until He bows His head after He cries, Tetelestai, it has been accomplished! Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. From the very moment of Gethsemane till He bows His head in death, in the theater of human activity, Jesus appeared in one capacity, in one perspective, in one visible representation, only that of a guilty felon. Had you showed up in Jerusalem that night and you didn't know what was going on, and you happened to see the crowd taking this man bound with his hands behind him and perhaps cords about his torso,

60:23 and they're dragging him to a certain place and you fell in behind the crowd, had you known nothing of what preceded or who was involved, and you followed all the events from his apprehension to his appearance before the high priest and Herod and Pilate, you would have said this is a guilty criminal. No way to regard him as anything other than a felon, a violator of the law, one whom the law has finally seized upon and upon whom it is venting its rightful hand of justice. And Hugh Martin says God so ordered those events that in all that the human eye could see, Christ appears only as a guilty criminal, that we might understand that what we could see and hear and observe in the phenomenal realm, in the physical, visible realm, was representative of what was truly being enacted in the invisible, spiritual realm where God sits in court, where the books of God are set, where the throne of God is planted.

61:52 God is making it plain that his Son is a guilty felon, not with guilt of his own sin, but the guilt, of imputed sin. Look at our text again. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so old Rabbi Duncan said it was damnation and he bore it lovingly.

62:24 That's the only good news there is for sinners like you and me. The good news is not let's all kind of get our collective optimism together and hope that though God took sin seriously in Eden, God took sin seriously in the days of the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah, in the judgment upon national Israel, though God took sin seriously here, there, that let's all get our collective optimism working and maybe somehow God won't take sin so seriously with respect to me. And to us, no, my friend, the cross of Christ is the eternally irreversible monument that God will never treat sin lightly. For if ever God was going to treat sin lightly, he would have treated it lightly when his Son was the sin bearer. If anyone was going to have something a little less than pure justice, it would be his well-beloved Son. But Romans 8, 30 says, Romans 8, 32 says, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.

The Completeness of Christ's Work and God's Validation

63:47 That is God's provision for our sin. A crucified Savior on whom Jehovah lays the sins of all who will ever come to believe in his Son. And you say, well, how can we be sure that when the cup was drunk, there wasn't at least one or two drops in there that comprised my sin? Jesus cried, it is finished.

64:21 And the tense of that verb means something has come to completion and it remains in the state into which it has come. It stands accomplished. And you know what the resurrection is? It's God's validation on the last cry of Jesus.

64:39 It is! The resurrection is God's Amen. It is finished. And that's not just human logic.

64:49 Romans 4, 25 said, He was delivered up for our offenses, raised for our justification. That's God's gracious provision for sinners. I don't know how to make it any plainer. And yet I know you'll go out of here whistling Dixie, talking about the weather, inquiring if there's any news about the Super Bowl.

65:14 And you won't care a twitch about this unless God Almighty does a work that I can't do. But if He's been doing that work, and as you've sat here tonight, you've said to yourself, Oh God, I came for this reason or that reason. But one thing is clear. I don't know who else has needed what the preacher has expounded from Isaiah 53, 6 tonight.

65:43 I don't know if anyone else needed to hear about his desperate condition in sin and your gracious provision for sin. But God, I know, it is exactly what I needed to hear. And you may be saying now, Well, what do I do? In the light of this, I see it.

66:01 I'm part of that flock of sheep that has gone astray. I'm one of those who's turned to his own way. I see that's my condition. And I see, as I've never seen before, the meaning of the cross of Christ.

The Call to Repentance: Seek the Lord (Isaiah 55:6-9)

66:16 But what do I do? I close by turning you to the very passage with which the pastor opened the service tonight, Isaiah 55. And God answers you in very clear words in verse 6 and following. Here's what you're to do.

66:34 Seek the Lord while He may be found. What Lord? The very Jehovah who laid upon the servant of Jehovah the sins of men. Seek this God.

66:50 This God now can be favorable to sinners without in any way ceasing to be righteous and holy. He can be both just and the justifier of those who believe in His Son. He has made a way to preserve the integrity of all of His character and still rescue you from sin. And never forget it.

67:13 God's maintenance of His character is more important than you getting out of hell. And God would not deliver one soul from hell if the price He had to pay was to stain His own holy perfect character. But He's found a way that far from staining His character He displays it in all its glory. His love, His righteousness, His justice, His holiness, all of His attributes shine in their most intense brilliance around the cross of Christ.

67:48 Seek the Lord. When? While He may be found. When is that?

67:55 Right now. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Seek the Lord.

68:03 Have dealings with God now. Call upon Him while He is near. He is near in the preaching of His word. God will never be nearer this side of the second coming to any sinner than He is in the preaching of His word.

68:18 The word of faith, Paul says, that we preach is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. What are you to do? Seek the Lord. Call upon Him.

68:30 But you say, in what way shall I seek Him? And how shall I call upon Him? Look at verse 7. Let the wicked forsake His way.

68:41 Ah, we're back to that way business again. You've been in the God business. God says, stop it. You've been calling.

68:50 Stop it. And don't do it half-heartedly. Forsake your way. Abandon your way.

68:59 Your way of running your own life, setting your own standards for right and wrong and virtue and sin. Stop it. Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man his thoughts.

69:15 Stop making a god of your brain with respect to what is truth and what is error, what is right, what is wrong. How can man be right with God? You abandon your thoughts and bring them subject to God's thoughts in Holy Scripture. Seek the Lord.

69:32 That is, seek Him in the way of repentance. And look. Look at the promise. Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy upon him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.

69:50 You mean to tell me, preacher, that if I simply call upon this God, turning from my own way and my own thoughts, that this God, for the sake of Christ, will fully, completely, irreversibly pardon all of my sins forever? Yes. You say, that's too good to be true. God says, I know it is, so read on.

70:13 Yes, God anticipates your thinking. Read on. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways.

70:23 Neither are my ways your ways. If you and I were God and anyone had treated us the way we've treated Him, we'd say, crawl in your muck for a while. Put you on probation for a while. Behave yourself for six months.

70:39 Then I'll see if I'll welcome you. God is not like us. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways.

Final Exhortation: Come to Christ Now

70:48 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Oh, may God grant that this night you may go to this God who dealt with our sin in the person of His Son and His servant. I go back to Rabbi Duncan's words quoted several nights ago. There's nothing but Christ between us and hell.

71:20 And thank God we need nothing else. But nothing less will do. Thank God there is nothing between us and hell. We need nothing else.

71:40 But nothing less will do. Some of you dear young men and women reared in godly Christian homes, catechized in your Bibles, read to you and memorized and wonderfully restrained from the sins of the neighbors, kids and all the rest. But oh dear children, listen, listen, listen. You can't have Christ by proxy.

72:08 Christ is not yours because He's moms and dads. He's yours only when you embrace Him to be yours. And He welcomes children who are sinners. He welcomes teenagers who are sinners.

72:26 He welcomes old, hardened, sour, bitter sinners. The Scripture says this is a faithful saying in the Holy of All Acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world sinners to save and no qualification before the word sinners. In the original the word sinners comes first.

72:47 He came sinners to save. Young sinners, old sinners, polite sinners, rotten sinners, sweet smelling sinners, stinking sinners, sinners. Jesus came to save. And dear friend, He stands in the living name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

73:08 He is the witness of His power. Not only ready and willing but entreating that you come to Him to be saved. Are you almost persuaded? Almost?

73:22 I close by reading the words of a young woman known to me personally who was so burdened for her fellow teenagers who had heard a message similar to this that she went home and penned these words based on the words of Agrippa who said to Paul, I need to be a Christian. Almost a Christian. Almost. Not quite.

73:48 Almost persuaded by what is right. Almost. Just. Almost.

73:57 What a mistake. How can you dawdle? Your soul is at stake. Almost escaped from judgment and wrath.

74:08 Almost you would joy on the only straight path. Almost you taste of the bliss of His will. Almost won't save you. Condemned you are still.

74:24 Christ, He has come. The price has been paid. He lived in perfection. To death He obeyed.

74:33 Salvation, redemption, the way He has paved. God can forgive you and you can be saved. What here is keeping you? What makes you stay?

74:47 Stay not just almost, but go all the way. What sin is worth the torture of hell? For earthly treasure would heaven you sell? Would you for friends in this fickle world out into darkness forever be hurled?

75:12 Would you for seconds of trifling fun be damned forever without anyone? Almost persuaded. Thus stayed the king. Agrippa was lost over some little thing.

75:30 Left out in darkness in agony great. Almost. Just. Almost.

75:38 But now it's too late. How can you linger? How can you wait? How can you dare risk that horrible fate?

75:56 All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. There are many of you whom no doubt I shall never see again until the day of judgment.

76:22 But in that day you'll not be able to point your finger at me and say, Preacher, you didn't tell me the truth about myself or the truth about Jesus Christ and His salvation. My hands are clean of your blood. But I don't want simply to leave California on this trip. With clean hands.

76:48 I want to leave with full hands. To take some sinners to heaven with me. Oh, go to Christ. He stands ready.

77:01 Graciously inviting. Come. And I will. And will.

77:09 Receive. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for the glorious gospel of your beloved Son.

77:27 And we pray that the Holy Spirit will take the truth preached this night. And oh, that he would make it effectual in many hearts. That many would mark this night as the night when they did indeed see by the work of the Spirit what they were as straying sheep, as self-centered rebels. And beholding your glory in the face of Christ, this night laid hold of you and your salvation.

78:02 We thank you for your people. And pray that as they have heard again the old, old story, may their hearts burn within them with gratitude and love and renewed zeal to tell abroad this glorious message of all that you have done in the suffering servant of Jehovah. Thank you. Thank you for the privilege of meeting in this way.

78:29 And may your Spirit seal the word to our hearts. We plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.